[Reuters] The top U.S. intelligence official has ordered tighter restrictions on how the names of Americans kept secret in intelligence reports can be revealed during presidential transitions, according to documents seen by Reuters.
The move follows unsubstantiated charges by President Donald Trump and his allies that his predecessor’s administration spied on Trump and improperly "unmasked" the identities of his associates during the 2016 presidential campaign and transition.
Current and former senior U.S. intelligence officials who have reviewed the documentation dispute those claims by the president.
In September, the U.S. Justice Department said in a court filing that it had no evidence to support the president’s claim that President Barack Obama ordered surveillance of his Trump Tower campaign headquarters.
In a Nov. 30 letter sent to Representative Devin Nunes, Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and other top lawmakers, the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said the new unmasking policy is due by Jan. 15.
Nunes was among the first to charge that U.S. intelligence agencies collected information on Americans involved in Trump’s transition team. A Nunes spokesman declined comment.
Coats wrote that the new policy will reinforce existing procedures that "make clear that IC (intelligence community) elements may not engage in political activity, including dissemination of U.S. person identities to the White House, for the purpose of affecting the political process of the United States."
#2
This needs Congress to pass a law. Short of that, anything one “top official” orders, his successor can order differently — as, indeed, happened in this case.
#3
Just prior to leaving office the Obama administration allowed the NSA to share information from its vast international surveillance apparatus with the 16 other agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community. Couple that with ginned up, bought fake dossiers to take to the FISA court to obtain warrants and "Unmasking" is blessed with the aura of legality and the info can be shared across all intelligence agencies. That seems to me to be a problem that skirts the 4th Amendment. Thank you Obama for your diabolical and scurrilous "fundamental transformation" (sarc on).
#4
BTW, how many terrorists have been rounded up because of this snooping? Didn't do any good to prevent Las Vega, Boston bombing, San Bernadino, Orlando, or Ft. Hood.
#5
It was a targeted snooping, JohnQC, and terrorists were not the targets.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/08/2017 12:11 Comments ||
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#6
BTW, how many terrorists have been rounded up because of this snooping? Didn't do any good to prevent Las Vega, Boston bombing, San Bernadino, Orlando, or Ft. Hood ?
A question that should be asked at the highest levels of gov't, and often.
[Spokesman] OLYMPIA – Washington birth certificates could soon have three options to represent a person's sex: M, F, or X.
The state Department of Health is considering a change in its rules that allow transgender individuals born in the state to petition to change the sex listed on a birth certificate to represent their gender identity. It would also allow those who don't identify as either strictly male or female to choose a third option, X.
The proposal met with strong support from groups supporting and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities at a hearing Tuesday.
Continued on Page 49
#7
Why not just pick your own gender designation, e.g. any letter or combination of letters of the alphabet, or all or none? I could have gender "JohnQC" short for John Q. Citizen.
#11
"It's stressful for men being besties
With folks who were born without testes,
Right down from Orestes
To Henry Hill's Westies."
- non-missing X chromosome lefties
[SeattleTimes] A new federal report on homelessness shows King County behind only Los Angeles and New York City in the number of people living without permanent shelter.
King County has the third-largest concentration of homeless people in the country, a new federal report shows.
National homelessness figures compiled by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development show that with an estimated count of 11,643 in 2017, King County trails behind only Los Angeles County and New York City in overall homeless population. That overall number includes people living in shelters and other facilities, as well as outdoors.
The department requires communities from around the country that receive federal dollars to conduct annual snapshot counts to track homeless numbers. A local point-in-time count was conducted in King County earlier this year.
King County also ranks third in the number of unsheltered homeless ‐ people living in vehicles, tents and on local streets. The 5,485 unsheltered people counted in the county in 2017 represent a 21 percent increase over last year’s tally.
The numbers underscore the severity of a problem that stretches from Seattle to San Diego. As rents soar and access to affordable housing shrinks, the number of people living in states along the West Coast is trending in the wrong direction.
In California, the number of people living without permanent shelter rose by nearly 14 percent, the report shows. Oregon saw a 5 percent increase this year, while in Washington the homeless population rose to 21,112 ‐ an increase of 1 percent over the previous year.
The crisis has prompted several local governments, including those in the city of Seattle and King County, to declare a civil state of emergency.
In hopes of reducing the numbers, local authorities have begun a series of reforms. Earlier this month, officials announced $34 million in new contracts for homeless service providers, and they’ll hold the providers to new performance bench marks.
Combined with federal funding, officials are projecting a dramatic increase in the number of people moved off the streets. With its new funding plan, the city believes it can help move 7,399 people from homelessness into stable housing in 2018. That’s up from the 3,026 "exits from homelessness" projected for 2017.
#3
As rents soar and access to affordable housing shrinks, the number of people living in states along the West Coast is trending in the wrong direction.
I've said it before: If you really want affordable try Detroit or Albuquerque or Houston. The coastal areas of California, Oregon and Washington are what you call prime real estate so it's no surprise that a lot of people can't afford to live here.
It's a shame that we all can't afford to live in mansions on the beach in La Jolla or Malibu but some of us have to settle for something a bit more modest and a bit further inland. We have to work for it too.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/08/2017 12:37 Comments ||
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#4
What about the ones that choose to be homeless, or "outdoors"?
We have vagrancy laws for those folks. I'd put them in encampments out in the desert surrounded by concertina wire. Let them pitch their tents there.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/08/2017 12:43 Comments ||
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#6
I posted this in order to Highlight the growing trend in Socialist Cities and their Skyrocketing homeless issues. the trend seems to be that when the rich urbanites move in, who ever was there and doesnt conform to much higher living expenitures ( taxes, and fee's) , well they must move away or go broke.
#8
Raj, you only hear about the "homeless problem " during R administrations. It magically clears up as soon as a D takes over. Then appears again in the next R administration.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/08/2017 14:49 Comments ||
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#9
Funny there doesnt seem to be all that much homelessness in "red" dominated areas.
The onion is self-peeling at this point
Yet another key member of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe appears to have deep ties to the Democratic Party.
Aaron Zebley served previously as Mueller's chief of staff at the FBI and in the FBI's Counterterrorism Division and as a senior counselor in the National Security Division at the Department of Justice. He also was an assistant U.S. attorney in the National Security and Terrorism Unit in Alexandria, Virginia.
He is often referred to in the media as Mueller's "right-hand man."
Also, in 2015 when he was a lawyer, he represented Justin Cooper, the IT staffer who personally set up set up Hillary Clinton's unsecure server in her Chappaqua home, Fox News' Tucker Carlson revealed on his show Thursday.
Cooper, it so happens, is also the aide who destroyed Clinton's old BlackBerries with a hammer.
Documents obtained by Fox News show that Senate investigators grew frustrated with Zebley after being repeatedly stonewalled when they were trying to set up a meeting with Cooper.
"Mr. Zebley telephoned Homeland Security [Committee] staff to inform them that Cooper had chosen to cancel the interview," the documents said.
In a letter to Cooper, congressional investigators complained: "We are troubled by your attorney's [referring to Zebley] complete refusal to engage the committee in a discussion about how to further assuage your concerns."
Let this sink in. The same attorney who played a defensive role for Hillary Clinton was tapped by Mueller in June to play an offensive role against Clinton's opponent President Trump.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2017 11:46 ||
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#1
Yep. Totally non-partisan and impartial!
Even if they found something against Trump, it would be tainted politically.
I mean if I remember correctly there were a number of my fellow Rantburgers complaining about the large number of democratic operative type lawyers and investigators on the Mueller team.
Seems Mueller and the FBI underestimated Trump (or believed all of the phony news about Trump as a dim light bulb)
Memo to FBI, Mueller, Congress, and others, you don't get to Trump's station in life with his vast empire of holdings by being a dim light bulb.
Seems as I can remember the democrats are want to call all Republican Presidents dumb, I can remember they used that label on Eisenhower for goodness sakes!!!
#4
So, what was Mueller's purpose when he hired every major lawyer who he knew was in bed for Hillary? surely it was not done by accident, and it was not done without expecting it to have consequences, down the road.
Posted by: Si vis pacem ||
12/08/2017 20:52 Comments ||
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[Free Beacon] Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez (Ill.), who announced last week that he will not seek reelection after spending 24 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, will no longer be able to pay his wife hundreds of thousands of dollars from campaign funds once he officially departs from Congress.
Soraida Gutierrez, his wife, has collected more than $430,000 from Gutierrez for Congress, Luis's campaign committee, since 2010. Soraida is the top recipient of expenditures this year.
Soraida, who was a registered lobbyist in Illinois prior to appearing on the campaign's payroll, has been listed as the campaign's office manager, fundraiser, and treasurer for the past seven years.
Gutierrez's campaign committee has reported $77,838.69 in operating expenditures from the beginning of January to the end of September. Soraida has received seven checks for $6,000 each‐or $42,000 total‐during this time, meaning that she has collected more than half of his campaign's disbursements.
The second largest expenditure from Gutierrez's campaign this year is a $22,000 donation to the Puerto Rican Relief Fund, which is not included in the committee's operating expenditures total, but is rather marked under other disbursements.
Gutierrez has said he is leaving Washington to focus on the rebuilding efforts in Puerto Rico, although some have speculated that the abrupt retirement raises questions about his motives and that he has made a "grand inside play," Politico reported.
#7
Imagine my surprise that a woman married this pendejo chihuahua
It's an old saw that women are attracted to fame, money and power, whereas men are attracted to looks. Weinstein merely went overboard with his attempt to bed a new woman every night. No question he could have attracted plenty of good-looking women without coercion. The problem is that nobody (including good-looking A-list stars like Charlie Sheen and Ashton Kutcher) can get a different attractive woman to do one-nighters with him every night of the week. Women want, if possible, a lifetime supply of that fame, money and power. One-nighters don't do the trick.
#9
Fat & hairy with a face that looks like a frying pan? Where do I sign up?
Kissinger wasn't particularly photogenic, but apparently quite a success with the ladies. Of course, unlike Weinstein, he was single, charming and presumably not a presumptuous flasher and groper who counted on his money and power to land a one-night stand every night of the week:
Even in his youth Kissinger didn’t quite fit the bill of a matinee idol, but he’s always been a hit with the ladies. A 1972 poll of Playboy bunnies selected Kissinger as the man with whom Hef’s ladies would most like to go out on a date. He also had a string of celebrity girlfriends in his younger days, including Diane Sawyer, Candice Bergen, Jill St. John, Shirley Maclaine, and Liv Ullman, who called Kissinger, “the most interesting man I have ever met.”
Kissinger’s swinging bachelor days are long gone, though. In 1974 he married philanthropist Nancy Maginnes, a union that seemed at one point seemed so improbable that just a year earlier Nancy had called speculation that she and Kissinger would marry “outrageous.”
[WashingtonTimes] And the legend goes on, or something like that. Now on sale, it’s the Hillary Clinton Tree Topper, which features a very life-like plaster figurine of Mrs. Clinton with feathery angel wings and pristine white pantsuit, meant to go on the top of the Christmas tree. Actually, the Hillary Topper is ideal for the "Resistmas" tree. Yes, the Democratic holiday lexicon now includes the handy term "Resistmas" for those who still have not come to terms with the 2016 election.
But back to the plaster(ed?) Hillary.
"She is most presidential of tree toppers, 3D sculpted in her iconic power suit with angelic wings, 3D printed to order with pinpoint accuracy, with a simple wire tie threaded through holes on her back to safely secure to your tree," notes the description from Women to Look Up To, a British nonprofit promoting "female equality" and offering the decoration, along with versions based on Beyonc, Serena Williams, Angelina Jolie and other famous women.
"She’s the First Lady of Christmas tree decorations. Christmas tree topper, angel, or fierce fairy ‐ now she’s a woman to look up to," the organization promises, though the prices for the pricey Hillary ornament start around $107 for a version suited for a typical tree.
"There’s no word yet, however, on whether it smells of sorrow and corruption instead of the traditional fir tree scent," writes Emily Zanotti, a writer for The Daily Wire.
Incidentally, those who attended the big Women’s March on the nation’s capital and other cities back on Jan. 21 have not forgotten the event, famous for pink knitted "pussy hats" and feminist slogans. Plans for the anniversary of the event are already in motion, and they include an official commemorative book titled "Together We Rise: Behind the Scenes at the Protest Heard Around the World," complete with essays by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Rep. Maxine Waters and many more. The hardcover book weighs in at 320 pages and showcases organizers now "sustaining and building on the widespread outrage, passion, and determination" of the event. Do the eyes seem to follow you around the room?
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
12/08/2017 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
You forgot to select a bit of text to attach the link to, Abu Uluque, so I did.
